Light Chicken Chimichangas

A million years ago (also known as 2010), I posted a recipe for Cooking Light Chicken Chimichangas that I'd made for the first time.  I absolutely LOVE this recipe and have made it a hundred times since then.  I think I love it more every time I make it.  It's so easy and so good.  I pulled up the recipe from my recipe archive yesterday before heading to the store to get the ingredients and cringed at the awfulness of the photos from the original post.  Seriously, go back and look - they're so bad.  I think I was using a point and shoot, at night, in a dark kitchen, with bad lighting and the flash on.  Man, I have learned so much about photography in the last couple years.  This is a true testament to how much your photos can improve by just practicing and figuring out what works.  I'm going to go back and update the photos (with the ones below), but I'll wait a couple days to give you sufficient time to check it out and make fun of me.

Anyway, I snapped some new and improved pictures last night to replace the bad ones, so I figured it was worth reposting the recipe, while I'm at it.  You should TOTALLY make this for dinner tonight.  

(Also, my spell check is dying to change "chimichangas" to "Michigan."  What?)

Cooking Light Chicken Chimichangas

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked boneless chicken breast
1 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (4.5 ounce) can green chilies drained
1 (16 ounce) can fat free refried beans
6 (8 inch) whole grain flour tortillas
cooking spray
bottled green salsa

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
2. Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl and toss well.
3. Spread 1/4 cup refried beans down center of each tortilla. Add 2/3 cup chicken mixture. Roll. Place in casserole dish (coated with cooking spray) with seams down.
4. Spray tops of tortillas with cooking spray. Optional: top with a little extra cheese.
5. Bake for 7 minutes.
 6. Serve with green salsa, hot sauce and/or guacamole.

Did you know that you can shred warm chicken by throwing it in your Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the paddle attachment?  No more shredding chicken with two forks!  Then I just throw everything else in there with the chicken and mix it together.  

Refried beans, straight from the can.

Top with chicken goodness (use extra chilies if you want a kick).

Rolled up and into the dish.

Toasted to make the tops (and bottoms) a little crunchy.

Smothered with salsa verde.  

So good. 

We're having them for dinner again tonight because they're even better leftover.